Tony Fitzgerald ‘threatened with personal attacks’ over Newman Government stoush

Former anti-corruption commissioner Tony Fitzgerald at his holiday home on the Sunshine Coast.Source:News Limited

QUEENSLAND corruption buster Tony Fitzgerald has accused the Newman Government of threatening to continue personally attacking him if he keeps criticising the Government.

The retired judge, who headed the landmark 1980s Fitzgerald inquiry into corruption in Queensland, also again criticised the appointment of Chief Justice Tim Carmody – and what he described as a “sustained attack” on judicial independence.

“I knew that the personal attacks would occur, and know that they will continue, not only from past personal experience but because I was threatened with precisely what is occurring from within the Government earlier in the week,” Mr Fitzgerald said in a weekend statement.

“The Queensland judiciary’s independence and impartial application of the law have been under sustained attack.

“The Government’s most outrageous step and most blatant mistake – which it can’t reverse – was the appointment of a totally unsuitable supporter to head the state’s judiciary.”

Mr Fitzgerald described the decision of the majority of the Supreme Court’s judges not to attend a welcome ceremony for Chief Justice Carmody on Friday as a reaffirmation of the court’s independence.

“Sooner or later, we have to choose whether to give in to bullies or stand our ground. In the immortal words sometimes attributed to Ned Kelly: ‘Such is life’,” he said.

The retired judge has repeatedly condemned the Newman Government for decisions including its changes to the Crime and Misconduct Commission, its failed sex offender laws and the chief justice appointment.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie would not be drawn on Mr Fitzgerald’s missive yesterday, saying the Government had a lot of respect for Mr Fitzgerald.

Brisbane barrister Tony Morris QC, however, has taken direct aim at Mr Fitzgerald, accusing him of “gobsmacking hypocrisy”.

“Were he the official leader of the Opposition, he could not have done a better hatchet job on the Newman Government,” Mr Morris writes in an exclusive piece in The Courier-Mail today.

“Fitzgerald says that Carmody was promoted ‘without plausible explanation’. But he never made similar comments about appointments – equally lacking any ‘plausible explanation’ – by the Goss, Beattie and Bligh governments.

“In 1998, no ‘plausible explanation’ supported the appointment of a junior District Court judge to replace Fitzgerald as president. Justice Margaret McMurdo has turned out to be (in Fitzgerald’s own words) ‘one of Queensland’s most respected judges’.”

Mr Morris said he believed the new Chief Justice deserved a chance to prove himself, a courtesy that had been extended to Justice McMurdo.